Government needs to stop using charge card to pay bills

Posted on Wednesday, January 16, 2013 at 9:46 am

When my wife and I need to find ways to pay our bills, the one thing that doesn’t come to mind is using a credit card to pay them.

Using this method would only take care of some bills while the amount of debt is still owed and grows with a percentage of interest to be added. Amazingly, our U.S. government doesn’t think like we do.

This past week, President Barack Obama held his final press conference during his first term in office and talked about our nation’s debt ceiling.

President Obama said “So I want to be clear about this: The debt ceiling is not a question of authorizing more spending. Raising the debt ceiling does not authorize more spending. It simply allows the country to pay for spending that Congress has already committed to.”

He believes the debt ceiling needs to be raised once again to help the nation pay some of its bills that will soon reach the near $16.4 trillion statutory limit.

President Obama follows by saying “So let’s finish this debate. Let’s give our businesses and the world the certainty that our economy and our reputation are still second to none. We pay our bills, we handle our business, and then we can move on because America has a lot to do.”

While it does appear necessary for now to raise the debt ceiling, my question is are we actually “paying our bills” by raising the debt ceiling? Are we not just putting the bills on a credit card and continuing to rack up more debt? At some point, something has to give. For many Americans with financial struggles like our nation’s, bankruptcy would be considered as an unfortunate option if their spending continues to get out of hand.

Immediately, a family would have to take responsibility and might have to consider changing up a cell phone plan, get rid of cable or satellite television, get rid of car payments, reconsider all purchasing habits, and not eat out for some time to come.

President Obama went on to say all of what America needs to do in regards to spending money on education and other programs but he never gets serious on discussing spending cuts that need to take place.

President Obama added “And for nearly two years now, I’ve been fighting for such a plan, one that would reduce our deficits by $4 trillion over the next decade, which would stabilize our debt and our deficit in a sustainable way for the next decade.”

I’m no math major but what is $4 trillion cut over 10 years really when our nation’s debt has went up $5.4 trillion the past four years? It also increased about $5 trillion under President George W. Bush during his eight years.

In September, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), vice chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, gave a breakdown to ABC News of the last four years.

He said “… the national debt has grown by more than $4 billion per day, $170 million per hour, $2.8 million per minute and more than $47,000 per second…”

At some point our government has to really get serious about getting a hold of our national debt.

It was at $653,544 billion when President Gerald Ford was in office. In just 16 years, the debt has jumped to $16.4 trillion and now exceeds our Gross Domestic Product of $15.8 trillion. Unfortunately, with our government officials taking every opportunity to play politics with the issue, I’m not sure our national debt will ever return to a level of “acceptability.” At some point, the collection agency will be calling and something will have to give.

Baltimore Ravens

In fear of jinxing my favorite NFL team the Baltimore Ravens, I’m not going to talk too much about their success and being one game away from reaching the Super Bowl.

I will say their AFC Divisional 2OT game with the Denver Broncos was the best game I’ve ever watched either in person or on television. If the Ravens weren’t in that game, I’d feel the same way.

Pro linebacker Ray Lewis said it best, as I paraphrase, “when it’s your time, it’s your time and when it’s not, it’s not.”

Who knows what will happen on Sunday when the Baltimore Ravens have a rematch with the always tough New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game?Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

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